down to earth

Along with the slowing down and the occasional aches and pains of ageing, there are also many pleasures. They are too many to count, they change all the time and they're often simple things that aren't noticed or not possible when you're younger and working for a living. Yesterday's particular pleasure was roast lamb for Monday's lunch. What decadence! It's an innocent pleasure, a real part of Australian family life and something to share with you all on this cool Autumn day.

My sister and I grew up knowing two things: mum and dad were always right and, come hell or high water, there would be a roast lunch on Sunday. It could have been pork, chicken or a rolled beef roast but mostly it was lamb. Dad would usually do the cooking on Sunday and mum would help serve and wash up. Along with the meat there would be potatoes, pumpkin, onion, peas, carrots and gravy. Afterwards there was sometimes a dessert of an apple pie or steamed pudding with custard. It was all cooked from scratch and always delicious. We didn't have a lot of money but mum always brought good food.

I like slow cooked lamb so I put the leg in the hot oven around 7am and after 30 minutes reduced the temperature to 160C. It sat there roasting till about 11am when I added potatoes, pumpkin and onion and turned up the heat again. At 11.30am I removed the lamb, put it on a plate, wrapped it in foil and covered it with a clean tea towel. When the vegetables were cooked, I removed them from the roasting pan, saved the juices for the gravy and started boiling a broccoli head.

I had home made mint sauce in the cupboard so that was added to the plate of steaming roast lamb and vegies. I thought of all those people out there having a sandwich and a cuppa for lunch, all those people eating a burger and chips, and all those who had nothing. I wished I could have shared lunch with anyone who was hungry. We'll be eating this lamb today as lamb curry with rice and I'll give some to Sunny for her tea when she picks up Jamie this afternoon. There is nothing worse than having to cook a meal when you've been on your feet for hours, working. A good curry made with roast lamb should help Sunny unwind after work and know she is loved.

And for dessert? We're harvesting our backyard oranges at the moment and even though they look a bit green and are marked in places, they're as juicy and sweet as the best orange you're ever likely to buy. In fact these oranges are better than those you buy. Nothing better on a warmish autumn day than to finish off lunch with an organic orange.

I baked a banana buttermilk cake yesterday as well. It's for morning teas during the week. Usually I add walnuts to a banana cake but as Hanno is still having problems with his teeth, I added thick pieces of banana instead. Delicious! I'll be doing that again.

There is enough leftover lamb for at least two more meals. I think I'll make up all of it into a curry today and then I won't have to cook lunch again until Thursday. Many people think cooking from scratch takes longer, and sometimes it does, but there are ways of saving time too. I would have spent about 15 minutes yesterday peeling vegetables and making gravy. Today it will be another 15 minutes spent preparing the curry. That's not too bad - 30 minutes all up for our main meal over three days. And maybe I'll be able to stretch it even further. :- ) What are your tricks for saving time when you're cooking?

Hanno and I have spent a lot of time this year and last fixing, painting, rearranging and fluffing our home to prepare it and ourselves for our older old age. We're in the early stage of old age now, the perfect time to assess what we'll need in the future, what work we want to do and are capable of, and to use that information to prepare our home to keep us safe, warm and content in the years ahead. We don't want to replace furniture and paint verandahs when we're in our 80s. Soon it will be too late to do this work but it couldn't be done too soon because we wouldn't have know what to do.

We also have to make sure we spend our money wisely. So in the past year and a bit, we've enlarged the chicken coop, replaced an extremely long boundary fence, removed two vegetable garden beds, erected a growing trellis for fruit, had the bathroom floors professionally cleaned, replaced an old bathroom vanity unit and mirror, replaced carpet in our bedroom, replaced an 18 year old air conditioner, removed living room curtains and replaced them with timber blinds, bought a new couch, bought new-to-us outdoor furniture, painted the roof and replaced all the old screws, replaced the front door and security door, decluttered our wardrobes and drawers, and in this last couple of months, tiled a small area of the front verandah, painted the floor and updated my office. And we did it all without going into debt or buying anything on credit, we bought when we could afford it and apart from the bathroom floors, bedroom carpet and the verandah tiling, we did the work ourselves.

Everything was done as we could afford it and when we had the time.

I'm not going to tell you it was easy, at times it was exhausting but now we're at the end of it, I'm so pleased we did it. We both feel we're retained the integrity of our home, it's still an expression of us and not a show piece. This work has been made easier because we've done ongoing maintenance and upkeep all through our lives. But now we have to get it right. Money isn't automatically replaced with our wages every month as it was in the past and it's vital we get the best value for the money we have.

Ongoing home maintenance is essential, not only on a monthly basis with lawn mowing, gutters, cleaning floors, ovens and fridges, but also with a longer view. If you have a plan to replace, renovate and modernise as you progress through the years, you won't come to a point when you have to do it all at once. There will come a time when, like us, you'll have to do the last of the big jobs so you'll remain independent and comfortable in old age, but if you've kept up your maintenance before that point, it will be much easier and cheaper to do those later important renovations.

How do you manage this in your home?

What a grand couple of weeks it's been with my sister Tricia here. I swear we get closer as we get older and at times it was like having another me here. :- ) She helped me with the sewing and crochet for the book and we tossed around ideas about things to add. It's so helpful having a sounding board that you know is sensible, intelligent and creative.

I wrote last week that Tricia had me select fabric to make some new covers for our outdoor lounge. Well, here it is: green rabbit/hare cushions with blue-grey stripes. I just love it. A couple of months ago we had someone in to tile an area near the front door where concrete cancer was creeping in and then Hanno stripped back some older uneven paint and painted the floor a beautiful shade of bluish grey. It's so peaceful and relaxing out there now.

Hanno found some plums at the shops last week and being very partial to plums he bought a few that I made into a plum cake. The batter was very dry and I thought it might not turn out well but the cake was delicious and was eaten in two days (I had one slice). I won't say who had the most cake but it was a man. ;- )

Here is the recipe it used (from Smitten Kitten). If you have no plums, use peaches, apricots or pears, it would be equally delicious. As usual, I made adjustments, the chief one being to reduce the amount of sugar:

1 cup of SR flour
Pinch of salt
¾ cup of granulated sugar
½ cup butter at room temperature
2 large eggs
6 plums, pitted and sliced

In a medium mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter together until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat in. Add the dry ingredients and fold in a with a spatula.

Place the batter in a round cake tin, greased with butter and lined on the bottom with baking paper.

Place the sliced plums on top of the batter and bake in a preheated oven at 180C/350F. The batter is thick and the plums easily stay on the top.

The cake is baked when it's golden and smells cooked or when a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Serve warm but it keeps well and will be just as good the following day.

I drove Tricia to the airport to fly back to Sydney yesterday afternoon and we were both nervous because the weather there was atrocious. She arrived late but she was safe. And now we're back to what we call normal. I'm still busy writing but I've reached the halfway point now. The visit with my sister felt like a holiday for me and I feel refreshed and ready for whatever is ahead. So after a brief period of laughter, frequent cups of tea and lots of talking, it's time to get serious again. Let's go!

It's calm in our home, even with four people here. Yesterday we had Jamie for the day and my sister Tricia is staying with us for a couple of weeks. The routine is held together by meal times and cups of tea. Isn't that a lovely way to live a day? This morning, just after breakfast, Hanno, Tricia and Jamie drove down to the coast to the Caloundra markets. They said it was mostly knick-knacks for tourists and there were no fruit and vegetables. They did come back with a very good loaf of rye bread with seeds though. We had a slice each with our lunch which was corned beef hash - using up the leftovers from Saturday's lunch.

Looking towards the chicken coop and creek from the house. From left those trees are : native fig, pecan, Eureka lemon and Washington orange.

Some of the ladies leaving the coop for their early morning stroll.

Jamie with two new cushions sewn by Tricia, the cushion queen. She added homemade bobbles.

Tricia knitting and watching a Norwegian cooking program.

Tricia and I have been working on crafts for the new book although she has done much more than I have. Most of the time I've been at my laptop, fan on, door closed, writing. But even though I've been closed away, I can feel the calmness in our home. We are working, relaxing, reading, crafting, cooking and baking, but the rhythm here is quiet and peaceful. It makes such a difference to work in a tranquil home.

Above and below: preparing and then painting the front verandah. It's all finished now and it looks fabulous.

Chocolate buttermilk cake.

Someone's sewing equipment above, and below, one of many stacks of fabric.

I'm really pleased to tell you the book is half finished. It's all going along quite well with only a few brain freezes in my department. If it keeps going this way, it will all be finished on time in mid-June. Thank you for your continued visits, even with fewer posts. I hope you read through the archives because I've been told more than once that there are real treasures there.

I hope you are well and if you're in Australia, that school holidays are treating you kindly. My plan for the coming week is to keep writing and cooking but I do have to make some laundry liquid and some four ingredient soap. I'll probably do that on Tuesday. What will you be doing in the coming week?